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Bronx Zoo Lion House Goes Green as Cockroaches, Crocs Move In

The Lion House at the Bronx Zoo in New York is shown in its original state in this circa 1903 photo. The new exhibit “Madagascar!” will be on display at the restored Lion House starting June 20.

A springy, rubberized floor made from recycled plastic and used tires cushions my steps as I move from a leafy jungle to a spiny forest at “Madagascar!” — the new exhibit in the restored 1903 Lion House at New York’s Bronx Zoo.

Waiting inside are 100,000 (or so) hissing cockroaches, Nile crocodiles and, more adorable, furry, long-tailed lemurs.

The historic structure, designed by Heins & La Farge as part of the zoo’s original Astor Court campus, represented state-of- the-art zoo design at the turn of the 20th century. The lions could stroll through a passageway connecting their indoor and outdoor cages — a true innovation at the time.

Some two decades ago, the lions were relocated so they could roam more freely in a natural-looking setting, leaving the building vacant — until now.

Restored by FXFowle Architects of New York, the Lion House retains its ornate charms — the limestone and brick facade, the stately Ionic columns, the copper roof and carved heads of jungle cats on the terra-cotta cornices — while incorporating some very 21st-century ideas for green design.

The architects deepened and widened the basement to hide the building’s infrastructure — like the geothermal wells that eliminate the need for a cooling tower and the system that recirculates the “gray water” that goes down the drain in bathroom sinks. Now it’s used to water the many plants in the exhibit, reducing consumption by 49 percent.

Pillowed plastic skylights maximize daylight and also control the interior temperature.

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Bronx Zoo Director Jim Breheny has ‘Animal Magnetism’

When Jim Breheny talks about the 13-foot Nile crocodile in the exhibit on Madagascar opening next month at the Bronx Zoo, it’s easy to picture the teen who began working there 35 years ago.

“Can you imagine the kids? They’re going to flip!” Breheny exults, describing the 2-inch Plexiglas window that’ll bring the crocodiles nose-to-nose with visitors.

At age 14, Breheny took a summer job leading camel and pony rides at the zoo. Two years ago, he became vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society and director of the Bronx Zoo.

“I keep waiting for the real guy to show up,” Breheny joked. “I never would have believed I’d be in this position. It’s just amazing.”

Though surprised to find himself in the top post, Breheny knew he wanted to make a career at the zoo from the moment he started working there.

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Is Jose the Bronx Beaver Still Around?

Jose, the Bronx River beaver.

Bite marks like these give hope that Jose is still alive.

Fans of Jose, the famous Bronx River beaver, are hoping he isn’t resting in peace.

The bucktoothed, broad-tailed furry symbol of the once badly polluted river’s slow rebirth is hopefully still alive and well, gnawing away on tree branches for his riverbank lodge inside the protective grounds of the New York Botanical Garden.

His fans and river supporters became concerned last month when scuba and harbor unit cops patrolling the East River near the United Nations for the Pope’s visit rescued a beaver floundering in the water there.

Named after Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), who has pumped federal money into cleaning up the river, Jose had not been spotted for some time, and his fans fear the nocturnal furry guy might have been drawn downriver, attracted by the bright lights of the big city.

Cops said the animal they spotted midday in the East River on April 18 was tilted unnaturally and showed labored breathing.

They lassoed the struggling 40-pound, 4-foot-long male with a safety noose and hauled it aboard the harbor patrol boat.

Unfortunately, the animal later died as it was being transported to an upstate animal clinic.

Stephen Sautner, assistant director of conservation communications at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, said it has been awhile since anyone has actually seen Jose.

“The last I heard of a confirmed sighting on the Bronx River property was in August last year during some of the herring surveys along the river,” he said. “Someone even clicked a photo. Nothing confirmed since then.”

But Sautner offered some hope Jose is alive and well.

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Students from the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation hear a talk by zoo employee Linda Corcoran.

Hands on: Students Aber Hajdarmataj (l.), and Yuliana Hernandez take measurements from a miniature ecosystem they created in class.

Wildlife on Top List of Studies For One Bronx School 

At the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, the zoo is more than a field trip

When Elijah Maderon attended a class at the Bronx Zoo in January, he and his fellow sixth-graders gave presentations on how they might protect peregrine falcons from the pesticide DDT if they were conservationists on a tight budget.

Inspired by the activity, Elijah quickly prepared a proposal afterward. With the silver tongue of an experienced entrepreneur, he described a video game to an intrigued teacher. Called Zoo Tycoon, the game allows players to work within a budget to build and maintain a zoo with the goals of ensuring its animals’ health and happiness while still turning a profit. The game, Elijah maintained, would fit right in with his school’s curriculum.

That kind of thinking is encouraged at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation (UASWC) in the Bronx, where Elijah and 148 other students represent the inaugural class. This is one of 19 themed-curricula public schools throughout New York City funded partly by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Where Have The Jack Rabbitts Hopped Off To? 

A new study by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society found that jack rabbits living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have apparently hopped into oblivion. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Oryx, also speculates that the disappearance of jack rabbits may be having region-wide impacts on a variety of other prey species and their predators.

According to the study, historical records from more than 130 years ago indicate that white-tailed jack rabbits were once locally abundant in Greater Yellowstone, a 60,000 square kilometer (23,166 square mile) ecosystem that contains both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the WCS study found that no jack rabbit sightings could be confirmed in Yellowstone since 1991 and only three in Grand Teton since 1978.

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